As it happened: Anthony Albanese tests positive to COVID-19; fallout from Solomon Islands-China security pact continues

Thank you for reading today’s coverage of the 11th day of the election campaign.

Here’s a quick summary of what you need to know tonight.

• Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has tested positive to COVID-19 after a day of campaigning on NSW’s south coast, which included a visit to a retirement home and an ethanol refinery in Nowra. He will begin day 12 of the campaign from isolation at his home in Sydney, where he will speak via radio, television and online interviews in a bid to keep the Labor campaign in the spotlight. Senior Labor figures such as Richard Marles, Penny Wong, Jim Chalmers and Mark Butler are likely to have a greater role in the campaign as Albanese isolates.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese at Top Ryde City shopping centre before testing positive to COVID-19.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

• Catherine Yeoman, a mother whose plight with the NDIS prompted the Prime Minister to remark that he was “blessed” to not have children with disabilities during last night’s leadership debate, has criticised Scott Morrison for the comment. However Yeoman said she was more disappointed Morrison avoided her question about funding cuts to the NDIS.
• New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet’s slim majority is under threat after Sydney MP Alex Greenwich said he would withdraw his support for the government over Perrottet’s comments concerning transgender people playing sport. The premier weighed in on Warringah candidate Katherine Deves’ controversial stance on transgender people and women’s sport, saying “girls should play sport against girls” and that people should be able to raise issues “without being cancelled”. Independent Greg Piper said he was “appalled” by the comments.
• Channel Seven was billed almost $170,000 for the legal costs of three witnesses testifying on behalf of Ben Roberts-Smith in his defamation fight against war crimes allegations, showed documents aired in the Federal Court today. A spokesman for Seven West Media executive chairman Kerry Stokes said the bills were not ultimately paid by shareholders, but “re-charged” to the Stokes family’s private company, Australian Capital Equity (ACE). No documents verifying this claim have been made public.
• COVID-19 hospitalisations in NSW and Victoria today were the highest since February. Household contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Victoria and New South Wales will no longer need to isolate for seven days as of tomorrow night. Australia recorded 50 deaths and 54,183 new cases today.

In what was Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese’s last evening outing before testing positive to COVID-19, the Labor leader went toe to toe with Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday in an hour-long debate.

Acting state political editor for The Age, Josh Gordon, has tested two key claims made by Morrison and Albanese during the face-off to see if the leaders stuck to the facts or fudged their figures.

First up is Morrison’s claim that his government turned the budget around by $100 billion.

And did the government double the debt before the pandemic, as Albanese claimed?

Read Josh Gordon’s full analysis here.

Earlier this month The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age spoke to seven senior Labor MPs about what contingencies were in place to try to manage the situation if their leader fell ill.

None would speak on the record as they were not authorised to do so, but the MPs confirmed the campaign has war-gamed what to do if Mr Albanese catches COVID.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese at Top Ryde City shopping centre before testing positive to COVID-19.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Under the plans, senior shadow ministers including Richard Marles, Penny Wong, Jim Chalmers and Mark Butler will play a more prominent role if Albanese is sidelined, taking on the job of being the leading spokesperson for the party on a particular day, depending on what the issue might be.

Albanese, if he is well enough to do so, will conduct campaign events via video conference and potentially also press conferences.

Read more about Labor’s contingency plan.

Albanese campaigned in Symons House Retirement Village in Nowra today before testing positive to COVID-19 this evening. He was wearing a mask during the visit.

He also visited a Nowra ethanol refinery with Labor MP Fiona Phillips.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese greets Labor MP Fiona Phillips during a visit to a Nowra ethanol refinery today.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Albanese finished the day meeting Bennelong Labor candidate Councillor Jerome Laxale at Top Ryde City Shopping Centre in Sydney just before receiving a positive PCR test result.

The Labor leader has been taking PCR tests regularly, but had not tested positive on a RAT. A spokesman confirmed he is currently asymptomatic.

The PCR test was part of routine testing ahead of a planned flight to Western Australia.

It’s Albanese’s first time testing positive to the virus. He will continue to campaign via videolink during isolation if he is well enough to do so.

Read more.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s election campaign plans have been thrown into chaos after he tested positive for COVID-19 just hours before he was due to fly to Western Australia.

The result means he will have to spend seven days isolating at home in Sydney while his opponent Scott Morrison can continue touring the country trying to win crucial votes in what is shaping as a tight election.

Anthony Albanese campaigning at a Nowra nursing home today.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“Following a routine PCR test this afternoon ahead of interstate travel to Western Australia, I have returned a positive result for COVID this evening,” Albanese said in a statement on Thursday night.

“I have been testing regularly as part of my election campaign duties. I will be isolating at home in Sydney for the next 7 days and will continue to follow health guidelines and advice.”

Albanese said he would continue campaigning from home while he recovers from the virus.

“I am grateful to know that I will have access to the world’s best health care if I need it, because of Medicare,” he said.

“I am feeling fine so far – and thank everyone for their well wishes.”

Read more.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd said Australia’s waning relationship with the Solomons is a “bit like a divorce - it doesn’t happen overnight”.

Rudd was asked on ABC Radio Melbourne moments ago what Prime Minister Scott Morrison could have done to stop Solomon Islands’ deal with China.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“It’s an accumulation of factors,” he said.“[Looking at] the aid and climate factors over a long period of time, that has created a series of underlying perceptions that the Australian government [and the] Liberals looks down on the Pacific Island countries, treats them sanctimoniously and, frankly, is not a reliable partner.

“The second and most specific thing was to walk away from the regional island states’ concerns on climate change.”

Rudd said “the world’s a tough place”, and urged host Raf Epstein to “name me a single region in the world where everyone plays fair - they don’t.”

“That’s just the reality,” he said. “This is a business for grownups who actually understand the nature of strategic competition.”

He questioned why Morrison and Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne were not at the forefront of dealing with the matter. He said the representative the government sent to the Solomon Islands, Zed Seselja, was in his view, “some guy who looks after the aid portfolio”.

The Australian Polling Council has dismissed complaints about polling conducted for Climate 200 candidates after Liberals accused two research firms of push polling.

A Redbridge poll for independent Monique Ryan, who is challenging Josh Frydenberg in the Melbourne seat of Kooyong, was at the centre of the complaint.

Climate 200 is supporting candidates including Allegra Spender, Zoe Daniel, Kylea Tink, Sophie Scamps and Kate Chaney.Credit: Jessica Hromas, Elke Meitzel, Wolter Peeters, Nick Moir, Tony McDonough

The complainants submitted a recording of the April poll, which made it appear the poll began with “guided questioning”, through which the pollster provides a positive summary of the candidate and their platform before asking voters how they will vote.

This practice, called “message testing”, is common, but APC guidelines say the results cannot be published as a representative sample. Any neutral questions about how people will vote must be asked before other messages or prompts that could influence responses.

The recording submitted by the complainants to the APC was “partial”, the council found. It had chopped off the start, when neutral questions were asked, making it appear the poll started with guided questions.

However, independent experts are concerned about other polls by Redbridge and uComms which they say unfairly elevated independent candidates over the major parties.

Read the full story.

For the first time in this election campaign Prime Minister Scott Morrison was asked if he would remain the Liberal leader if the Coalition loses power on May 21.

The prime minister didn’t answer the question and instead criticised Labor leader Anthony Albanese’s credentials.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits Living Gems Retirement Village in South Caboolture in the seat of Longman, QLD.Credit: James Brickwood

“There’s four and a half weeks to go in this election, and Australians are looking carefully, and many of them haven’t made up their mind and they will be making up their mind over the next four and a half weeks,” Morrison said.

“What they do know, is what they don’t know about Anthony Albanese, what they don’t know about his plan. What they don’t know about his experience on national security and on economics.

“What they do know is what they do know about our government, the Liberals and the Nationals, keeping Australians safe. Keeping our economy strong, because a strong economy means a strong future.”

Read the full story.

Liberal MP Dave Sharma has distanced himself from his party’s controversial candidate across the harbour, Katherine Deves, calling her comments about transgender issues “reprehensible” but refusing to say whether she should have been disendorsed.

Sharma crossed the floor in February to support the removal of laws that allow religious schools to discriminate against LGBTQ students. The Wentworth incumbent is a prominent ‘moderate Liberal’, the faction that has pushed for greater LGBTQ equality within the Liberal Party.

Liberal MP Dave Sharma speaks at a Sky News People’s Forum debate with Allegra Spender on Thursday.Credit: Richard Dobson, POOL

Until now Sharma had made limited comment on Deves. At a Sky News debate on Thursday, he said: “Her comments … were reprehensible and should be condemned and withdrawn and I’m glad she has withdrawn them.”

Asked if Deves should be dumped, Sharma said: “I don’t have a say in that. I didn’t select her as a candidate, I don’t get a say in whether she’s endorsed or not.”

On the issue of trans women’s participation in women’s sport, Sharma noted the Sex Discrimination Act already had provisions to protect women’s sport where issues of strength and physicality were involved.

“Let’s not reach for a sledgehammer to crack a nut here,” he said.

A mother whose plight with the NDIS prompted the Prime Minister to remark that he was “blessed” to not have children with disabilities has criticised Scott Morrison for the comment.

But Catherine Yeoman said she was more concerned that Morrison had failed to address the concerns that she and other parents have over NDIS funding cuts.

Catherine Yeoman, her son Ethan, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The Brisbane woman, whose four-year-old son Ethan has autism, used the first leaders’ debate on Wednesday night to ask Morrison about issues with the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

In response, Morrison told Yeoman and the audience - and those watching on television - that he and wife Jenny were “blessed” to have “two children who don’t, haven’t had to go through that [autism]” .

“It was a poor choice of words and I do believe every child is a blessing,” Yeoman said today. “I don’t want this comment to overshadow the intent of the original question.”

Morrison and his staffer approached Yeoman after the debate and took her details, she said.

“He did live up to his promise. He came directly to me ... I have had a phone call first thing this morning very early from the PM’s office and they’ve invited me to call again,” she said.

Labor seized on Morrison’s reference to being “blessed” to have children who did not have autism, sparking a debate on social media.

Read the full story.